Prep Course for DAT?

[drtoothy]

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I'm currently debating whether or not to take a Kaplan DAT Prep course or something similar to it. Anyone know whether it's really worth $1300? Do you think it's possible to study by yourself, or do you think it's worth it to take the course? What prep books do you guys recommend?

Any advice is welcome!

 

[Mstoothlady2012]

From what I have heard...kaplan course has good material but does not have good lectures. You can buy Kaplan materials from SDN, there are many people willing to sell it. You can study by yourself if you discipline yourself. If you think you can't make your study schedule, then take the course that might force you to study.

I am using DAT destroyer, topscore pro, Schuam's outlines for bio, Kaplan (blue book). I have heard a lot of good thinks about destroyer, I havent used it yet but I am sure its a great book.

hope this helps

 

[RICEman]

From what I have heard...kaplan course has good material but does not have good lectures. You can buy Kaplan materials from SDN, there are many people willing to sell it. You can study by yourself if you discipline yourself. If you think you can't make your study schedule, then take the course that might force you to study.

I am using DAT destroyer, topscore pro, Schuam's outlines for bio, Kaplan (blue book). I have heard a lot of good thinks about destroyer, I havent used it yet but I am sure its a great book.

hope this helps

You mean the 5 subjects tests from each section of DAT?

 

[H2OPOLODENT]

I'm currently debating whether or not to take a Kaplan DAT Prep course or something similar to it. Anyone know whether it's really worth $1300? Do you think it's possible to study by yourself, or do you think it's worth it to take the course? What prep books do you guys recommend?

Any advice is welcome!

Don't listen to these other guys... take the Kaplan course. I did, and it helped me tremendously. Remember, you are about to spend an enormous amount of money on dental school applications, not to mention dental school itself. $1300 is a good chunk of change, but its well worth it. The material is excellent (more representative of the actual test than Achiever, which I also purchased) and if nothing else, the lecture structure will keep you on a good studying pace.

I'll put it this way, if you don't do as well as you want to on the test, you'll kick yourself for not taking the class.

 

[uesider]

I am currently enrolled in the Kaplan prep course, and I think it is helping a lot. I have an excellent teacher who is really great at teaching the concepts and tricks (although I disagree with their Reading Comp strategy.) Also, having access to the online materials is key, and actually having to go to a physical classroom keeps me motivated and on top of things. If you are able to spend the $1300, I really see no disadvantage to the course. I haven't taken the DAT yet, but from what I've heard from people who have, the Kaplan course definitely gets your score up.

 

[supraman]

I am currently enrolled in the Kaplan prep course, and I think it is helping a lot. I have an excellent teacher who is really great at teaching the concepts and tricks (although I disagree with their Reading Comp strategy.) Also, having access to the online materials is key, and actually having to go to a physical classroom keeps me motivated and on top of things. If you are able to spend the $1300, I really see no disadvantage to the course. I haven't taken the DAT yet, but from what I've heard from people who have, the Kaplan course definitely gets your score up.

Whats their Reading Comp strategy?

 

[xdianaax]

I was asking myself this same question...a lot of people say they still have to study a lot even after they've done kaplan, from other sources. If that's the case then $1300 doesnt sound worth it to me...

 

[uesider]

Kaplan's reading comp strategy is to go through the entire passage and "map" the passage by writing down the "topic" and "key words" of each paragraph on your scrap paper... so when you read the questions, you will know which paragraph to go back to. I find this to be very long and tedious, and I can imagine running out of time trying this. Reading Comp is my strong point though, so I'm using my own strategies from SAT, GRE, etc and just using Kaplan for the sciences. Actually we had our Quantatitive Reasoning class the other day and I found that to be very helpful as well.

 

[bruinpredent]

Don't listen to these other guys... take the Kaplan course. I did, and it helped me tremendously. Remember, you are about to spend an enormous amount of money on dental school applications, not to mention dental school itself. $1300 is a good chunk of change, but its well worth it. The material is excellent (more representative of the actual test than Achiever, which I also purchased) and if nothing else, the lecture structure will keep you on a good studying pace.

I'll put it this way, if you don't do as well as you want to on the test, you'll kick yourself for not taking the class.

I'd have to agree with this...Kaplan is a necessary evil. I say evil merely because their prices keep rising for no good reason...when i took the course a couple months ago it was 1000, and now its 1300-1400.

Nevertheless, like H20POLODENT said, its a great resource, their materials are awesome, and it gives some serious structure to your studying if you take it seriously. If you want above a 20 though, you're probably going to have to supplement it with the usual achiever, topscore, schaums, destroyer, etc...

gluck 👍

 

[997GT3]

I think it's a matter of whether you learn better from lectures or by reading books. I did the latter and scored higher than an acquaintance who took Kaplan multiple times.

Edit: But then again, you should also take into account WHO is teaching the class. Results vary center to center.

 

[Veneto]

Don't listen to these other guys... take the Kaplan course. I did, and it helped me tremendously. Remember, you are about to spend an enormous amount of money on dental school applications, not to mention dental school itself. $1300 is a good chunk of change, but its well worth it. The material is excellent (more representative of the actual test than Achiever, which I also purchased) and if nothing else, the lecture structure will keep you on a good studying pace.

I'll put it this way, if you don't do as well as you want to on the test, you'll kick yourself for not taking the class.

I concur. In the end if you dont do well on the DAT, you dont get into dental school. You'll kick yoursel;f for not exahsting every resource to help you get that score. So really what is another 1300 dollars compared to 200,000 that you'll spend for dental school. Kaplan's lectures differ by the location that it is taken at because the people teaching it are different, and can lecture differently. The material is good and it helps you to organize what you need to know for the test and what information wont be there.

 

[astein46]

I am taking the Kaplan online course starting in June. I have talked to several people that have taken both, the online class and the live class. Most people said that the online class was as good if not better than the live class for a couple of reasons: 1) you have full access to lectures 24 hours a day and you can stop, rewind, rewatch all of these lectures as many times as you like. 2) Kaplans chose their top teachers to do the online lectures. You don't have to worry about the quality of the professor you are going to get, it's the same for everyone taking the online course. The only positive thing that was mentioned to me about the live course was that you have the teacher there to help you if you need it. But with the online course you still have access to help, just in the form of e-mail. Hope this is somewhat of a help.

I know that $1100 for the online course is well worth it for me. I plan to also by Destroyer, Acheiver, and possibly topscore. I don't want to overbuy and not have time to get through all the material. I think over a 5 week period I should be able to get through it all! 😀

 

[t man]

kaplan course 👍 But I agree that I benefitted mainly from the material and not the classroom time- the teachers aren't much older than the average college student, so how much can they really offer. If you have access to all the online material with the online course, and it's cheaper you should do that. But I really liked the online material, I wouldn't recommend only getting the Kaplan books.

I used topscore as well, and I like that also.